discipline," and of
"disobedience of orders," and of certain specifications to the
charges, among others one embodying the allegation that he did "on
or about the 2d of May, 1862, march his brigade into the town of
Athens, State of Alabama, and having had the arms of the regiments
stacked in the streets, did allow his command to disperse, and in
his presence, or with his knowledge and that of his officers, to
plunder and pillage the inhabitants of said town and of the country
adjacent thereto, without taking adequate steps to restrain them."
He pleaded guilty to one specification only, namely, that of
permitting his _wife_ to be with him in Athens, and to accompany
him while serving with troops in the field. This court-martial
was ordered by Buell, July 5, 1862, and it met first at Athens and
then at Huntsville, Alabama, July 20th.(14) General James A.
Garfield was its President, and Colonels John Beatty, Jacob Ammern,
Curran Pope, J. G. Jones, Marc Mundy, and T. D. Sedgwick were the
other members.

During the session of the court, General Garfield and Colonel Ammen
were the guests of Colonel Beatty and myself at our camp near
Huntsville. Though I had met Garfield, I had no previous acquaintance
with either of them. They were even them remarkable men--both
accomplished and highly educated, Ammen having previously had a
military education. We were enabled to get intimately acquainted
with them at our meals and during the long evenings spent in discussing
the war and all manner of subjects. Both were fine talkers and
enjoyed controversial conversation. Ammen, though not alone from
vanity, was disposed to occupy the most of the time, and sometimes
he would occupy an entire evening telling stories, narrating an
event, or maintaining his own side of a controversy. He was the
oldest of the party, and always interesting, so he was tolerated in
this--_generally_. He was superstitious, and believed in the
supernatural to a certain extent, denying that such belief was a
weakness, else "Napoleon and Sir Walter Scott were the weakest of
men." General Beatty relates an incident of an evening's talk
(July 24th) at our camp thus:

"We ate supper, and immediately adjourned to the adjoining tent.
Before Garfield was fairly seated on his camp stool, he began to
talk with the easy and deliberate manner of a man who had much to
say. He dwelt eloquently on the minutest details of his early
life, as if they were matters of the